1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid absorbent and a printer.
2. Related Art
Ink jet printers usually generate waste ink while cleaning their print head to prevent the printing quality from being affected by clogging or while loading ink from a new cartridge. This type of printer thus has a liquid absorbent for such waste ink so as not to let the waste ink adhere to and damage the moving mechanisms and other components in the printer.
Ordinary liquid absorbents used for this purpose are composed of natural cellulose fiber and/or a synthetic fiber and a heat-fusible material and a flame-retardant material (e.g., refer to Japanese Patent No. 3536870).
However, such known liquid absorbents have disadvantages associated with insufficient permeation of ink and the failure to absorb waste ink sufficiently fast; for example, waste ink can adhere to components other than the liquid absorbent.
Furthermore, there is a demand for liquid absorbents for printers to be more flame-retardant to make printers even safer overall.